Sweet
by Eternal Nocturne
Summary: ZeLink Halloween special, modern-day. Zelda's alone, handing out candy to the local Trick-or-Treaters. She's missing someone - a very special someone - and all it takes is a little girl's words to make the night all better.


_**A/N: Inspiration hits hard. I haven't felt like this in a while… A really long while. XD**_

_**DISCLAIMER: "The Legend of Zelda" and all rights, including the copyrights of the games, scenario, music and program, reserved by Nintendo. TM and (r) are trademarks of Nintendo. All rights reserved.**_

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><p><em><strong>-Sweet-<strong>_

Half an hour later, I was already running out of candy.

Sighing, I placed my candy bowl down and reached behind me to grab the last bag of sweets, which were expensive jelly-filled chocolate pieces. I poured them out into the large bowl, their delicate golden foil wrappings glistening in the moonlight. I held the bowl in my lap and looked at the chocolate longingly. These were my favorite. I didn't realize so many people would come by tonight.

Maybe it was because I lived in the largest house in the neighborhood and had an exquisitely decorated home. Or perhaps people just wanted a chance to meet me in person, since I was the last remaining daughter of the Harkinian bloodline. I didn't think about it at the time, since this was the first year I had ever attempted to give out candy to the local Trick-or-Treaters.

As I handed out three pieces of chocolate each to a group of kids that had approached me, I looked down at the bowl again. A week earlier, I took a trip to the superstore and bought sweets until the shopping cart couldn't hold anymore. Did all of the candy really get taken that fast?

I shook my thoughts away and smiled slightly, hearing the soft padding of the kids' shoes as they skipped across my yard, avoiding the sidewalk at all costs because it was apparently a river of lava. I watched as a teenager approached me, dressed in a long, dark robe and using a mask to cover his (her?) face.

He held up his bag without saying a word. I grimaced slightly, making sure not to let him see my reaction, and dropped a single chocolate piece in his overflowing bag. He walked away without a word of thanks, but I couldn't say that I was too surprised—he was the tenth one tonight to bear that type of attitude. And it just so happened that all ten of them were teenagers.

I guess people lose that gentle, carefree Halloween spirit with age. I gazed out past the endless greens of my front yard and looked beyond the fence that separated their world from mine. I could barely make out the glowing radiance of multicolored glowsticks and the pumpkin containers filled with candy that bounced with every joyful step that the kids would take. And even though I saw ReDeads, Gibdos, Poes, and Stalfos, laughter met my ears. It was a little contradicting.

Our house had always been closed from Trick-or-Treaters for as long as I could remember. Only after countless hours of seemingly hapless begging did I manage to win my father's approval for this one night.

I handed out candy to yet some more kids accompanied by a tall parent. They waved their good-byes and thank-yous, and once more I looked curiously down into my bowl of chocolate. Only half the bag was left.

I sighed. In reality, the thought of handing out candy for the Trick-or-Treaters was never my idea—it was Link's. I could have really cared less about participating in Halloween. But I missed him and his sweet smile and heartwarming voice… and I think that he missed me too. At least, I hoped that he did. After a certain misunderstanding at school, my father immediately withdrew me from the system and placed me in another one, far and distant from the one that I had grown to love.

And since Link and the rest of my friends were of "low class," my father never allowed me to spend any time with them outside of school. Now, we don't even attend the same school anymore.

I wasn't so sure how Link got my phone number. I've thought about it, and I realized that he was a lot more mysterious and capable than most people would give him credit for. He had called me randomly one night while I was in the middle of doing my horrible math homework (my new school was a huge step up from my last one) and somehow conned me into asking my father if I could hand out candy. He knew that asking if I could go Trick-or-Treating was completely out of the question, so he didn't get that far.

I could have just said no and saved me the trouble of having to live through multiple arguments. But looking at it now, as I sat on the steps outside the front door of my house, the moon shedding its silver light above me, it was worth it.

Well, almost. This whole thing was Link's idea, but I haven't seen him yet, and I was running out of candy. What would he think if he came to my house and saw that I wasn't there, that I'd completely disregarded his message to me and didn't keep my word? It's been years since I had last seen him, so I at least wanted to look decent… Plus, he meant a little more to me than one would think.

And if I did run out of candy… What was I supposed to tell the endless masses of children hungry for sweets if I decided to still sit outside the steps?

I dropped one chocolate piece into yet another silent teenager's pineapple-themed bag and watched him as he walked off a little awkwardly in his zombie doctor costume. It looked a little too small for him. Would it really hurt to buy a better costume? Honestly, some of these people were undeniably cheap.

A little girl walked up to me a little while later, dressed in a cute Great Fairy costume, complete with glossy wings and a dress made out of vines. She smiled a bright smile, and when she held her bag out to me, her blond pigtails bounced up as if reacting to her happiness.

"Trick-or-Treat!" she said, and her eyes locked onto my bowl of expensive chocolate. Just then, I realized that she looked a little familiar. Just a little.

"Hello," I greeted with a smile, and I dropped five pieces into her half-full bag. "You have a great costume."

"Thanks!" she giggled, doing a curtsy. I could tell that she had been practicing by the way she flawlessly carried it out. "My big brother helped me make it. Have you seen him yet?"

"Well, I'm not sure," I said. "What was he wearing?"

"Everything!" the girl laughed, twirling around. "Every two minutes, he goes back into the house and changes his costume! I don't know why. That's why my bag's only half-full instead of _really_ full like the other kids!" Her smile faded and she did a classic little girl pouty face.

"That's interesting," I pondered audibly, looking around. I noticed that the girl was without parental supervision. What was she doing out here all alone? "Where are your parents?" I asked.

"My big brother is standing right outside your yard!" she replied, pointing out to the fence in the distance. "He wanted me to go get candy here alone for some reason. But only this house!"

He sounded like a strange big brother. Was there something wrong with my house? Was he just afraid of a lot of little children, since it attracted a really large crowd?

"What's your name, sweetie?" I questioned.

"Aryll," she said beautifully.

I stared at her with nostalgic eyes, and my grip on the bowl loosened. The name sounded so familiar, and it was especially noteworthy since "Aryll" wasn't exactly the most common name out there.

And then it hit me.

"…You're Link's little sister."

"Mm-hmm!" She nodded. "Do you know him? He can be really weird sometimes!" So this was _the_ Aryll. Back when I was around Link, he'd tell me about her every other day.

I took a moment to tilt my head to the side so that I could try and find Link standing out there beside my fence. But the fence was black and the sky was black, and chances were that he wasn't holding one of those glowsticks since Aryll already had one, so I couldn't see him. My spirit died a little bit. I wonder how he looked now.

I noticed that I somehow I completely ignored the giant crowd of people waiting patiently to get their candy from me since I was so busy talking to Aryll. Well, not so much busy talking to Aryll anymore. My heart sunk when she told me that Link didn't want to come with her to get candy from me… Did I… do something wrong?

I must have. I must have…

"Excuse me, Miss?" Aryll called to me, snapping me out of my slight daze. She smiled. "You knew him before, didn't you? Do you want me to go and tell him that you want to talk to him? What's your name?"

"…Zelda," I said, my voice dropping to a whisper before picking up again with my next words. "I was just… wondering why he didn't want to come with you to get candy from me." She glanced behind her just then, looking past the crowd of people and trying to find her brother again.

"I dunno," she replied innocently, moving to the side so that more Trick-or-Treaters could come and get their chocolate. "Maybe he's just shy."

Shy? Link? The last time I saw him, he was the most courageous person I'd ever met. It was as if he didn't even know the definition of the word "fear." Either that, or he was just blatantly stupid. I never gave much thought to it.

"Are you sure we're talking about the same person here?" I laughed, a tinge of bitterness garnishing my voice. I dropped some candy into a kid's bag and waved good-bye to him and his parents. "The Link I know is very brave."

"Yeah, but he's also really shy and awkward sometimes!" she countered. A gust of wind waved her pigtails around and fluttered her wings.

"Sometimes?" I wondered. "Sometimes _when_?"

"Like… when he's around girls!"

I gave her a dumbfounded look. What did she just say?

"…What?" I asked, blinking.

"Yeah!" she laughed, waving her candy bag around. "When he was younger, he would always be all brave so that he could impress a girl that he liked. I know because he told me! And there was always this one girl he would talk about. But anyway, I think she just left him one day, and since then he's been really awkward with girls."

…Did Link realize that his little sister basically just told me his entire private love life?

Was I blushing? I think I was blushing. Oh no. Quick, I have to dip my head into the candy bowl… No, that would look awkward. Would it look more awkward than madly blushing all of a sudden?

"Well, I think he's getting worried about me!" said Aryll as I was looking around for something to hide my face. She curtsied for me again before skipping off. "Bye, Ms. Zelda!"

I couldn't help but stare at her back the entire way she merrily skipped off of my yard. Her wings glittered in the moonlight, so it was easy to identify her even through a crowd of impatient kids and adults. I was hoping that I'd find Link through her, but after she left my yard, she dashed out through my line of vision.

A little part of me wished that she would at least tell Link about me. He was bound to ask why she took so long, right? Or perhaps I was asking too much. There must have been a reason why he didn't want to see me.

Five minutes later, I was out of candy. I gave the remaining crowd a sad wave as I told them that I was officially out, and as I stood up to put the empty candy bags and bowl away, I heard multiple disappointed groans and whines. It was a little heartbreaking.

I watched them leave as I gathered the trash. The autumn wind tossed around the bags a bit, making my job so much more difficult. _So_ difficult, in fact, that I paid all of my attention into trying to catch that one last bag of mints that just insisted on blissfully flitting away from me every time I lunged at it.

So difficult that by the time I _did_ catch it and turned around, a guy was there, standing with his hands behind his back and four giant bags of Halloween candy placed a few feet away from him.

I froze in place. It was him. It had to be. The unkempt dirty-blonde hair that always got in the way of his blue eyes, the unique aura that always surrounded him as he stood, the stupid grin he had on his face whenever he played a prank on me for fun.

Oh, yeah. That meant that I just got pranked somehow.

"Happy New Year, Princess," he said, brushing a lock of hair out of his eyes. If it wasn't for the way his voice so pleasantly chilled my being, I would have gone off on him for calling me by that nickname of mine again. And I probably would have done it twice for getting the holiday wrong.

But I stood there like an idiot, hugging my empty candy bags. He laughed.

"What? I can't look _that _bad, can I?" he remarked, lifting his head. "And don't tell me that you're already done giving out candy." He paused. "I just saw how you had _so_ much candy, so I decided to help you out by stealing some of your bags when you weren't looking."

So _that's_ where all of my candy went.

"I wanted to take some of your better-tasting ones too, so I dressed up in a bunch of costumes and went to your house over and over."

Oh, Link. I hate you.

"I'm surprised that you actually never noticed that it was me," he commented, shaking his head. Did he expect me to recognize him when he was wearing some petty undersized doctor's costume? Then, as if he could read my mind, he added quickly, "The doctor's uniform I was wearing was Malon's, by the way, since I saw you look at me all weird because it was so small…" He paused again for a small moment, his deep blue eyes piercing into my own. "Aren't you going to say anything?" Then he got closer, smiling. "Am I scaring you?"

At this point, I laughed, dropped all of my bags, and ran over to hug him. He gave me an unexpected gasp as I rushed into his arms. Mmm, he was so warm. Memories of spending time with him playing on the playground in elementary school flooded my mind. I felt him tense, but in time, he wrapped his arms around my waist and returned my hug. He smelled so sugary… Probably because of all of the candy he stole from me.

That reminded me. I kneed him in the leg.

"Ow—!"

"You come back after all these years just to steal candy from me?" I scolded, trying to sound serious, pointing a finger at him as he inched back to rub his hurt leg. The undying smile on my face proved otherwise.

"Zelda, relax," he said, looking back up at me. "There's a reason I came back with all of the candy behind me…"

"And what's that?" I asked, stealing a glance at the filled bags. I caught the golden glow of one of my jelly-filled chocolates at the top of one.

"Well," he started, a flash of mischief bolting through his eyes, "I just saw your dad's limo head out of the driveway." He stopped caressing his leg to look straight at me. "And I know that unlike your dad, your butlers don't really care about who you hang out with."

He gave me that stupid grin again. I had to look away to avoid blushing.

"Are… Are you implying that we should stay up all night eating candy?"

"It's only fit for a reunion party," he remarked, taking my hand and leading me to the door. "You don't mind getting fat within a few hours, right?"

I laughed.

"No, not at all."

"Good." He picked up the filled candy bags and stepped through the already-unlocked doors. "And I didn't invite Aryll, because only Nayru knows what other secrets she could tell to random strangers…"

Needless to say, by the time the sun came up the next morning, I had crowned Halloween as my favorite holiday, and I had a new boyfriend as sweet as the candy that he took from me.

~x~X~x~

_**A/N: …I did it. I actually finished a whole entire story within one sitting. No breaks or anything.**_

_**I'm so proud of myself! 8D If I didn't do it all at once, this story probably would have fallen into that realm of neglect where the majority of my uncompleted stories are… So yeah, mission complete!**_

_**Anyway, I didn't have enough time to edit this, so expect an updated version sometime in the future! :)**_

_**And, as always, can you find the hidden pineapple(s) in this story? (+1 awesome point to those who can! :D Unless you took the easy way out of it and used Ctrl + F. Haha.)**_

_**One last note. I am just absolutely HORRIBLE at naming these…**_

_**-Eternal Nocturne-**_

_**Sweet – Completed October 26, 2011**_

_**Uploaded on October 31, 2011**_


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